The Bantam Ice Dogs hockey team is well off and running with their season. Always known to have success on the provincial stage, this year's edition of the Ice Dogs has picked up right where they left off last year.

Playing in the Rural Manitoba Female Hockey League, the team is 3-1 right now. Rob Hrechka is one of the coaches alongside Todd Boguski and he shares his thoughts on the season.

"Things are going really well right now, all the girls are really starting to come together as a team," said Hrechka. "We lost our first game of the season, but it was kind of early and we weren't really sure what kind of team we were yet."

Of their three wins, one sticks out in particular. Over the weekend, the team beat the Southwest Stars, 3-2. Prior to that game, Southwest had not lost a game. In the game, Hailey Hojnocki continued her great season with two goals while Allee Hrechka netted the other goal.

Caitlin Fillion was rewarded the win in net.

"Our girls played really, really well. We kind of mixed things up as I put our three AAA players on one line and Southwest had their hands full," said Hrechka. "It was a great effort by everyone. Our defence locked down and Caitlin was making all the saves. It was a big win for us and everyone felt great after."

The Ice Dogs have wrapped up their pre-Christmas play. The team will next play on January 11 in Brandon. Their next home game is on Saturday, January 18 as they welcome Brandon the GACC at 12:30 p.m.

With plenty of time to prepare until their next game, the team will get some time to relax, but they will also continue to practice on becoming a stronger team every day.

"We still need to work on winning battles on the boards. We also want to play more physical, we have the size and we need to use that to our advantage," concluded Hrechka. "We just need to put our practices together with our gameplan and I definitely think we'll have a good shot at winning a provincial title this year."